arizona: aircraft recovery center (ARC) | pima air & space museum | arizona desert | champlin fighter aircraft museum

Champlin Fighter Aircraft Museum

Champlin was so very, very cool. First of all, they had all kinds of fighters from the various wars. (Well, at least as far as Vietnam.) You couldn't touch any of them, but you could get pretty close, and they're all flyable. Like I said, cool.

Secondly, the non-aircraft portion of the museum included autographed photos from, basically, all the big-name aces from all the wars we've participated in. Seeing stuff from the aces of the Luftwaffe (a group that's always impressed the hell outta me), actually gave me chills.

Finally, what turned out to be the highlight of the trip: An actual, flying Heinkel He-111 bomber from WWII. One of the most dreaded sights of the Blitz, the "Spade" darkened the skies over London in late 1940. Seeing it in Scottsdale was just... weird.

	A French Spad, possibly a Spad XIII*. Probably the most-produced French fighter of the war, American Captain Eddie Rickenbacker scored all 26 of his victories in a Spad XIII.		A Russian T-34 medium tank from WWII.
	Although the T-34 was one of the best tanks of the whole war, it was incredibly uncomfortable for the crew. There's practically no room for people.		A German armored car from WWII. (I can't remember the type.) In the background is a Supermarine Spitfire, waiting to be restored.
	This total mess will eventually be restored, if you can believe it. It's what's left of a Japanese Army fighter (a Nakajima something-or-other, I believe) that was recovered in China.		A MiG-17 "Fresco" from the Korean War-era.
	Aaron was over by the chain-link fence while I was taking pictures of the T-34... "You may want to take a look at this," he said. "What?" "I think it's an He-111." "Oh, right," was my response. A year later, I think I still have marks from the fence on my forehead, after running full-tilt into it to see the bomber. This picture was taken after it rolled past some covered parking for private planes.		It's taxiing to the end of the field, near where the folks at Champlin restore the airplanes.
	I took this from outside the museum, after I had sprinted (literally) through an emergency exit I hadn't even noticed and out onto the flight line. I could've gotten in serious trouble, but, hey, it's not every day you see one of these things!		At this point, I had worked up enough courage to sneak down to the end of the building. This was as close as I dared to get, figuring that I'd be just a tad more obvious out in the open than lurking in the shadows. The Cessna next to the He-111 was the spotter plane that had been flying with it.
	After doing... something, it was time to go back up. This particular plane was built under license in Spain and had functioned as Franco's official transport in the 40's and early 50's. This means it has a few extra windows, but, other than that, it's the real deal.		Lined up at the end of the runway, getting clearance.
	Off we go. The roar of the engines gave me chills for a long time. For a fan of WWII aircraft, this experience was almost too much. It was just so damned cool!		You can't really see the He-111, but I couldn't help but take a picture of it, framed between the tailfins of a C-121 parked outside the museum. Right after this shot was taken, I got a bit of a scare: A large black puff of smoke from the port engine, followed by a loss of altitude as the engine apparently cut out. They got it restarted right away, but I bet it startled them a whole lot more than it did me!
	Standing next to the Thames in November 1940. No, wait! Sorry, it's Scottsdale in 1998. Weird...		Back inside the museum, this is a German Bf-109E (At least, I think it's an "Emil.") from WWII. This particular plane has flown in a few movies and I think it was the plane that sound engineers from Microsoft recorded to provide sounds for Combat Flight Simulator.
	A British Spitfire. A Mark V, I think. This is the plane people usually think of as winning the Battle of Britain, but it was the Hurricane that shot down the bulk of the German bombers.		A German FW-190 "Long Nose" fighter-bomber. The Lange Nase got its nickname from the extension made to the nose of the aircraft to accommodate an inline engine instead of the more usual radial.
	A wholly accidental silhouette shot of an American P-51D. Pretend you're in England in the early spring, 1944...		An American P-38. I think it's an "L," but I can't remember.
	More of the P-38.		A MiG-17 "Fresco" (hmmm, this might be a -19), painted in North Vietnamese colors.
	A MiG-21 "Fishbed," formerly of the Czech Air Force. I think the red blotch is one of my fingers... <sigh>.		A MiG-15 "Fagot" or "Midget," depending upon which variant it was.
	Right down the air intake of the MiG-15.		Another British fighter of WWI, but I'll be hanged if I can remember which one.
	If you can't guess which plane this is, based on the pilot, it's a British Sopwith Camel. (For some reason, I want to say that it's a Sopwith Pup.)		The Hun! A Fokker DR.1 triplane. It's black, but it's the same type that Baron von Richthofen (the "Red Baron") flew.
	The DR.1 from the front. It wasn't the fastest plane flying, but, with all this wing area, it could really turn.		A British SE-5*. The most common (I think) British fighter of the First War.
	A Fokker D-VII*, quite probably the best German fighter of WWI.		A Fokker D-VIII* overwing monoplane. The materials technology of the day (or maybe it was just the engineering) favored multiwing aircraft, so monoplanes were few, far between, and pretty much only showed up late in the war. Ironically, biplanes are extremely sturdy structurally, which might be why so many modern-day aerobatic aircraft have been biplanes.
	Another of my poor panorama shots. This is the Czech MiG-21 again. Somebody's christened her "Ivanka." This would be (roughly) the Russian version of "Jane" or "Joan."		An F-4 "Phantom II" from the Vietnam era.
	The North Vietnamese MiG-17 again. Spiffy camouflage, huh?

*Thanks to "The Rifleman" and "Old Hoodoo" for correcting my IDs of these planes.